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Empey says IRA a failed force

SIR REG EMPEY, the Ulster Unionist leader, has described the IRA as a defeated force and called on loyalist paramilitary groups to disarm, write Liam Clarke and Jason Johnston.

In a keynote address to his party’s annual conference in Belfast, Empey said: “The Provos have suffered a military defeat. No victorious so-called ‘army’ hands over weapons to a commission established by its enemy.”

The UUP leader described the IRA as a failed force “left friendless and isolated by the international community in the wake of September 11” and claimed “we have prised their fingers from the gun”.

Turning his attention to loyalist terrorists, he said: “I make this appeal to these groups: call it a day. Begin the job of decommissioning the firepower that has brought such misery.

“Northern Ireland is moving on apace and loyalist paramilitaries need to recognise that they no longer have any reason to maintain their